THE MUSTER.
Willy proved to have fine powers as a leader. Like the famous John
Gilpin,
"A train-band captain eke was he,
Of credit and renown,"
and the Never-Give-Ups became such an orderly, well-trained company,
that some of the rich fathers made them the present of a small cannon.
Do you know what a wonderful change that made in the condition of
things? Well, I will tell you. They became at once an Artillery Company!
Not poor little infantry any more, but great, brave artillery!
Every man among them cast aside his Quaker gun with contempt, and wore a
cut-and-thrust sword, made out of the sharpest kind of wood. An
Artillery Company,--think of that! The boys threw up their caps, and
Willy sang,--
"Come, fill up my cup, come, fill up my can;
Come, saddle your horses, and call up your men!
Come, open the west port, and let us gang free,
And it's room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!"
There was to be a General Muster that fall, and if you suppose the
Perseverance boys had thought of anything else since the Fourth of July,
that shows how little you know about musters.
A muster, boys--Well, I never saw a muster, myself; but it must have
been something like this:--
A mixture of guns and gingerbread; men and music; horses and hard
cider.
It was very exciting,--I know that. There were plumes dancing, flags
waving, cannons firing, men marching, boys screaming, dogs barking; and
women looking on in their Sunday bonnets.
The "Sharp-shooters" and the "String Beans" were there from Cross Lots;
the Artillery from Harlow; the "Pioneers," in calico frocks, with wooden
axes, from Camden; and all the infantry and cavalry from the whole
country round about.
Seth Parlin belonged to the cavalry, or "troop," and made a fine figure
on horseback. Willy secretly wondered if he would look as well when _he_
grew up.
"Saddled and bridled and booted rode he,
A plume at his helmet,
A sword at his knee."
It seemed to be the general impression that the muster would do the
country a great deal of good. The little artillery company, called the
Never-Give-Ups, were on the ground before any one else, their cheeks
painted with clear, cold air, and their hearts bursting with patriotism.
As a rule, children were ordered out of the way; but as the little
Never-Give-Ups had a cannon, they were allowed to march behind the large
companies, provided they would be orderly and make no disturbance.
"Boys," said Willy, sternly,--for he felt all the importance of the
occasion,--"boys, remember, George Washington was the Father of his
Country; so you've got to behave."
The boys remembered "the father of his country" for a while, but before
the close of the afternoon forgot him entirely. There were several
stalls where refreshments were to be had,--such as cakes, apples,
molasses taffy, sugar candy, and cider by the mugful, not to mention the
liquors, which were quite too fiery for the little Never-Give-Ups.
At every halt in the march the boys bought something to eat or drink.
There had been a barrel of cider brought from Mr. Chase's for their
especial use, and Fred sold it out to the boys for four cents a glass.
This was a piece of extraordinary meanness in him, for his father had
intended the cider as a present to the company. The boys did not know
this, however, and paid their money in perfect good faith.
"Hard stuff," said Willy, draining his mug. "I don't like it much."
"Why, it's tip-top," returned Fred. "My father says it's the best he
ever saw."
Mr. Chase had never said anything of the sort. He had merely ordered his
colored servant, Pompey, to put a barrel of cider on the wheelbarrow,
and take it to the muster-ground. Whether Pompey and Fred had selected
this one for its age I cannot tell, but the boys all declared it was "as
hard as a stone wall."
Dr. Hilton, who seemed to be everywhere at once, heard them say that,
and exclaimed,--
"Then I wouldn't drink any more of it, boys. Hard cider does make
anybody dreadful cross. Better let it alone."
I fear the boys did not follow this advice, for certain it is that they
grew outrageously cross. The trouble began, I believe, with Abram
Noonin, who suddenly declared he wouldn't march another step with Jock
Winter. As the marching was all done for the day, Abram might as well
have kept quiet.
"Yes, you shall march with Jock Winter, too," said Captain Willy,
exasperated with the throbbing pain in his head--the first he had ever
felt in his life. "Pretty doings, if you are going to set up and say, 'I
will' and 'I won't!'"
While the captain and the private were shooting sharp words back and
forth, and Fred was busy drawing cider, Isaac Lovejoy, the rogue of the
company, was very busy with his own mischief.
"Look here, Fred," said Joshua Potter, going up to the stall with a
twinkle in his eye; "they don't ask but three cents a mug, round at the
other end of the barrel!"
"What do you mean by that?" cried the young cider merchant, looking up
just in time to see Isaac Lovejoy marching off with the pitcher he had
been filling from a hole in the barrel made with his jack-knife.
"Stop thief! Stop thief!" cried Fred.
"That's right," said one of the big boys from over the river. "Ike's
selling your cider to the men for three cents a glass."
Perhaps this was one of Isaac's jokes, and he intended to give back the
money; we will hope so. But, be that as it may, Fred was terribly angry;
as angry, mind you, as if he was an honest boy himself, and had a
perfect right to all the coppers jingling in his own pockets!
He ran after Ike, and caught him; and there was a scuffle, in which the
pitcher was broken. Mr. Chase came up to inquire into it.
"Tut, tut, Isaac!" said he; "aren't you ashamed? You know that cider was
a present to the Never-Give-Ups."
The boys were astonished, and Fred's face crimsoned with shame. As soon
as Mr. Chase had gone away, Willy exclaimed, with a sudden burst of
wrath,--
"Well, boys, if you are going to stand such a mean lieutenant as that, I
won't! If he stays in lieutenant, I won't stay captain--so there!"
"Three cheers for the captain!" cried the boys; and there was another
uproar.
And how did Fred feel towards the fearless, out-spoken Willy? Very
angry, of course; but, if you will believe me, he respected him more
than ever. Pompous boys are often mean-spirited and cowardly; they will
browbeat those who are afraid of them; but those who look down on them
and despise them, they hold in the highest esteem. Willy had never
scrupled to tell Fred just what he thought of his conduct; and for that
very reason Fred liked him better than any other boy in town.
But the Never-Give-Ups were growing decidedly noisy. After they learned
that the cider was their own, they must drink more of it, whether they
wanted it or not. The consequence was, they soon began to act
disgracefully.
"Can't you have peace there, you young scamps?" said one of the big boys
from over the river.
"Yes, we will have peace if we have to fight for it," replied the
captain, who had drawn the little hunchback Jock to his side, and was
darting glances at Abe Noonin as sharp as a cut-and-thrust sword.
"Mr. Chase," said Dr. Hilton, struck with a new idea, "those boys act as
if they were drunk."
"Why, how can they be?" returned Mr. Chase; "they've had nothing to
drink but innocent cider."
"Any way," cried the doctor, "they are getting up a regular mob, and we
shall have to _quail_ it!"
Too true: it was necessary to quell the Never-Give-Ups, that orderly
artillery company, the pride of the town! Quell it, and order it off the
grounds!
Dire disgrace! Their steps were unsteady and slow; their heads were
bowed, but not with grief, for, to say the truth, they did not fully
comprehend the situation.
"The little captain is the furthest gone of any of them," said Dr.
Hilton. Indeed, before he reached home he was unable to walk, and
Stephen carried him into the house in his arms. Not that Willy had drunk
so much as some of the others, but it had affected him more.
Poor Mrs. Parlin! She had to know what was the matter with her boy; and
the shock was so great that she went to bed sick, and Mr. Parlin sent
for the doctor.
When Willy came to his senses next morning, there was a guilty feeling
hanging over him, and his head ached badly. He crept down stairs, and
fixed his gaze first on the sanded floor of the kitchen, then on the
dresser full of dishes; but to look any one in the face he was ashamed.
His mother was not at the table, and they ate almost in silence.
"Now, young man," said Mr. Parlin, after breakfast, "you may walk out to
the barn with me." Willy had a dim idea that he had done something
wrong; but exactly what it was he could not imagine. He remembered
scolding Abe Noonin for hurting little Jock's feelings; was that what he
was to be punished for?
Willy did not know he had been intoxicated. He was sure he did not like
that cider, yesterday, and had taken only a little of it. He supposed he
had eaten too much, and that was what had made him sick.
"Off with your jacket, young man!"
Old Dick neighed, Towler growled, the sheep bleated; it seemed as if
they were all protesting against Willy's being whipped.
"Now, sir," said Mr. Parlin, after a dozen hearty lashes, "shall I ever
hear of your getting drunk again?"
"Why, father! I didn't--O, I didn't! I only took some cider--just two
mugfuls!" gasped Willy; "that's all; and you know you always _let_ me
drink cider."
"Two mugfuls!" groaned Mr. Parlin, distressed at what he considered a
wilful lie; and the blows fell heavier and faster, while Willy's face
whitened, and his teeth shut together hard. Mr. Parlin had never acted
from purer motives; still Willy felt that the punishment was not just,
and it only served to call up what the boys termed his "Indian sulks."
Angry and smarting with pain in mind and body, he walked off that
afternoon to the old red store. Fred was sitting under a tree, chewing
gum.
"Had to take it, I guess, Billy?"
"Yes, an awful whipping," replied Willy; "did you?"
"Me? Of course not. Do you know how I work it? When father takes down
the cowhide, I look him right in the eye, and that scares him out of it.
He _darsn't_ flog me!"
This was a downright lie. Fred was as great a coward as ever lived, and
screamed at sight of a cowhide. He had been whipped for cheating about
the cider, but would not tell Willy so.
Willy looked at him with surprise and something like respect. He could
never seem to learn that Freddy's word was not to be trusted.
"Well, I'll do so next time," cried he, his eyes flashing fire.
"Look here," said Fred, crossing his knees, and looking important;
"let's run away."
"Why, Fred Chase! 'Twould be wicked!"
"'Twouldn't, either. Things ain't wicked when folks don't catch you at
it; and we can go where folks won't catch us, now I promise you."
Willy's heart leaped up with a strange joy. He would not run away, but
if Fred had a plan he wanted to hear it.
"Why, where could we go?"
"To sea."
"Poh! our Caleb got flogged going to sea."
"O, well, Captain Cutter never flogs. He's a nice man,--lives down to
Casco Bay. And of all the oranges that ever you saw, and the guava
jelly, and the pine-apples! he's always sending them to mother."
"I never ate a pine-apple."
"Didn't you? Well, come, let's go; Captain Cutter will be real glad to
see us; come, to-night; he'll treat us first rate."
"'My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.'"
It seemed as if Willy could hear his mother saying the words.
"You and I are the best kind of friends, Willy. We'd have a real nice
time, and come home when we got ready."
Willy did not respond to this. He did not care very much about
Fred,--nobody did,--and if he should be persuaded to go with him, it
would not be from friendship, most certainly.
"I wouldn't go off and leave mother; 'twould be real mean: but sometimes
I don't like father one bit,--now, that's a fact," burst forth Willy,
with a heaving breast. "I told him I didn't like your cider, and didn't
take but two mugfuls; but he didn't believe a word I said."
"You're a fool to stand it, Billy."
"I won't stand it again--so there!"
"There, that's real Injun grit," said Fred, approvingly; "stick to it."
"Father thinks children are foolish; he hates to hear 'em talk," pursued
Willy; "and then, when you don't talk, he says you're sulky."
"Well, if you go off he won't get a chance to say it again."
"O, but you see, Fred--"
"Pshaw! you _darsn't_!"
"Now, _you're_ not the one to call me a coward, Fred Chase."
"Well, if you _dars_, then come on."
Willy did not answer. He was deliberating; and I wish you to understand
that in a case like this "the child that deliberates is lost."
Without listening to any more of the boys' conversation, we will go
right on to the next chapter, and see what comes of it.